Hoax bomb scare at AP Secretariat

Hyderabad: As many as five anonymous
phone calls, claiming that a bomb was planted in the Andhra
Pradesh Secretariat which houses the Chief Minister`s Office
among others, today sent the police into a tizzy.

The phone calls, however, turned out to be a haox.

The calls were received between 11.30 am and 12.32 pm
at high-security government building, police sources said.

Chief Minister K Rosaiah was attending a function
organised by the Mahila Congress in the Gandhi Bhavan when the
calls were received in his office.

Despite this, he arrived in his office at around 12.40
pm and went straight into the fourth floor of the Secretariat
to address a video-conference with district collectors.

The bomb disposal squad swung into action at around 1
pm and conducted detailed checks for over two hours before
concluding that the threat calls were a "hoax", they said.

This was the first time that the CMO received such a
bomb scare, official sources said.

The telephone operator who received the calls
immediately alerted the Chief Minister`s staff following which
the issue was brought to the intelligence department`s notice.

The "threat" was quietly communicated to Rosaiah a few
minutes after the video-conference commenced in presence of a
handful of Ministers and top bureaucrats. However, the CM, his
Cabinet colleagues and the bureaucrats went ahead with their
job, they said.